Here’s the kind of NBA owner Chris Hansen wants to be in Seattle

Arena investor Chris Hansen wants to bring an NBA franchise back to Seattle. That’s great and all, and most Seattle sports fans seem to be excited for the prospect of having the Sonics back. But it’s easy to overlook the fact that once the Sonics return, Hansen — a largely quiet guy who lives in San Francisco and likes his relative privacy — would be the team’s owner.

Would he be like Mark Cuban, the outspoken and oftentimes controversial owner of the Dallas Mavericks? Would he be more like Sam Schulman, the determined and colorful owner of the SuperSonics team that won the 1979 NBA championship?

Surely, no one in Seattle is hoping he’ll be like Howard Schultz, the Starbucks magnate who ran the Sonics into the ground and sold them to Oklahoma City investor Clay Bennett. We all know how that turned out.

“I would plan to be a hands-on owner, but certainly not like Cuban,” Hansen said Tuesday in a live-chat with readers on the Seattle Times website. “Nothing against Mark; I think he’s been great for the league, but my style is much more reserved. And I believe that the fans would be much more interested in the opinions of the players, coaches and personnel executives than an owner.”

“I was a little young at the time to really have a great opinion about what kind of owner Sam Schulman was,” Hansen added. “Everything I hear about him is just secondhand. But it’s unquestionable that he built a great TEAM as an owner, as opposed to a collection of high-priced stars. And that is something that I will definitely try to replicate.”

Meanwhile, we know Hansen is a huge NBA fan. Growing up in Seattle, he was at a formative age, 11, when the Seattle Sonics rocketed into the 1979 NBA Finals, and watched from his home as the buzzer sounded in Game 5. The Sonics’ winning the national championship was a defining moment in Hansen’s life. He’s now a lifelong die-hard Sonics fan.

Now, he wants the Sonics back so bad, and is such a Seattleite, that he is willing to put up $800 million in private capital, has accepted $200 million cap for public financing, wants to buy an NBA franchise himself, is willing to pay even more for the arena through team rent, would make sure the new teams would stay for a mandatory 30 years, and is funding a study to see how KeyArena can continue as a viable piece of the Seattle Center.

And, like any true Sonics fan, he has a firm stance on the current Oklahoma City Thunder.

“I love basketball too much to say that I have trouble watching it,” Hansen said in the Seattle Times Q&A. “I think it’s fair to say I have trouble watching OKC, but I also hate the Lakers, so that was one of the most torturous series I’ve ever had to watch in my life. Couldn’t figure out who to root against.”

The Thunder beat the Lakers in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals Monday to advance to the conference finals for the second year in a row. Next, if they get the best of the San Antonio Spurs, they’ll be headed to the NBA Finals.

So who is Hansen rooting for?

“Anybody,” he wrote, “but OKC.”

Photo: Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images

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You know you're a Seattle sports fan when ...

You know you're a Seattle sports fan when ...

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... a .500 season feels like a championship season.

Suggested via Twitter by reader @SeattleFan29.

... a .500 season feels like a championship season.

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... you have deep emotional scars from Super Bowl XL.

Suggested via Facebook by reader Troy A. Taylor.

... you have deep emotional scars from Super Bowl XL.

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... you can hardly bring yourself to utter "Oklahoma," "City," "Thunder," or any combination thereof.

Suggested via Facebook by reader Michael Bell.

... you can hardly bring yourself to utter "Oklahoma," "City," "Thunder," or any combination thereof.

Suggested via Facebook by reader Michael Bell.

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... you finish every conversation about Seattle sports with a sigh.

Suggested via Facebook by reader Aja Murga Fredrickson.

... you finish every conversation about Seattle sports with a sigh.

Suggested via Facebook by reader Aja Murga Fredrickson.

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... you make sure to buy rain gear in your team's colors.

Suggested via Twitter by reader @Hihankara.

... you make sure to buy rain gear in your team's colors.

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... this photo still makes you cringe.

That's when Ken Griffey Jr. broke his wrist performing a leaping catch May 26, 1995. Some Mariners fans would say Griffey was never quite the same again.

... this photo still makes you cringe.

That's when Ken Griffey Jr. broke his wrist performing a leaping catch May 26, 1995. Some Mariners fans would say Griffey was never quite the same again.

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... you know the name of every hydroplane driven by Bill Muncie and Chip Hanauer.

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... you know the name of every hydroplane driven by Bill Muncie and Chip Hanauer.

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... you've developed a thesis on East Coast bias. These are not the true Huskies!

Suggested via Facebook by reader Troy A. Taylor.

... you've developed a thesis on East Coast bias. These are not the true Huskies!

Suggested via Facebook by reader Troy A. Taylor.

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... you have dreams in which the Seahawks' "Twelfth Man" refers specifically to you.

... you have dreams in which the Seahawks' "Twelfth Man" refers specifically to you.

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... you know Memorial Stadium for more than just Bumbershoot concerts.

... you know Memorial Stadium for more than just Bumbershoot concerts.

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... you refer to the New Orleans Hornets and Memphis Grizzlies as the "Future Sonics."

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... you refer to the New Orleans Hornets and Memphis Grizzlies as the "Future Sonics."

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... you make sure to buy plenty of Skittles for your Seahawks-watching parties.

... you make sure to buy plenty of Skittles for your Seahawks-watching parties.

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... you're excited the Huskies are in the Final Four -- of the NIT tournament.

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... you're excited the Huskies are in the Final Four -- of the NIT tournament.

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... you have a (not so) irrational hatred of the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Yankees.

... you have a (not so) irrational hatred of the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Yankees.

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... you don't even consider bringing an umbrella to the game.

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... you don't even consider bringing an umbrella to the game.

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... you cheer for the Sonics when watching the Oklahoma City Thunder. If you can bring yourself to cheer for them at all, that is.

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... you cheer for the Sonics when watching the Oklahoma City Thunder. If you can bring yourself to cheer for them at all, that is.

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... you're proud "The Wave" started at Husky Stadium.

Or, so goes the legend. There are several claims to the origin of The Wave, when a cheer makes its way around the stadium. But it's generally accepted that Seattle is where The Wave first became ingrained in sports culture.